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I can perhaps scarcely expect that the young persons I see around me can fully appreciate the truths which I have been telling them; and therefore, Mr. President, I address myself more particularly to you and the more advanced in age of those who now hear me; and I tell you that this reliance upon Government, and seeking after its employ, to the exclusion of all other legitimate and honorable means of procuring a livelihood, has up to the present moment been the principal bane and curse of Native Society. It is for you to check and put a stop to it. If you do not do so at once, it will be too late, so far as the present generation is concerned. They will be brought up in the same spirit as their fathers; and if they should hereafter see and acknowledge the grave error committed in their own education, they will have to put off the remedy until the next generation, when their own children are being educated. Therefore it is all incumbent upon the Hindu fathers and heads of families to instil these truths, for they are such, into the minds of the generation at present growing up around us.

ADDRESS on the Twelfth Anniversary of Patcheappah's Institution: 1855.

My LORD,(a) Mr. President, Trustees, and Gentlemen. It has been the custom of my predecessor and myself, before the close of the ceremonies of our festival, to address the gentlemen who have honoured us with their presence. Indeed, this practice has passed into a formal part of the proceedings of the day. In doing this, we have ever abstained from any mere generalities in praise of learning, or arguments to enforce its profits or delights; and have thought we should best employ the time allotted to us, by a brief review of the events and circumstances of the past educational year, particularly connected with this Institution, or having any bearing on the prospects of Education in general. That we have exercised a sound discretion in this course, is apparent, by a reference to the present great assembly. That shews that the Natives do take a deep interest in the cause of Education, and are perfectly alive to both its profits and its pleasures; and that it would be a waste of time to seek to apply an incentive or a stimulus where it is evident none is wanted.

The President and Trustees did not ask your Lordship to honour us with your presence at our examination; because, knowing the deep interest which your Lordship takes in the welfare of the people committed to your charge, and that in your determination to see things with your own eyes, you were freely visiting the examinations of the other Educational institutions of this Presidency, we thought that you would have thus ample opportunity of ascertaining the capacity of the Hindu youths, and the quality of the instruction generally afforded; and as we neither profess nor pretend that our (a) Lord Harris.

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boys are of a higher quality, or our instruction of a higher standard, than elsewhere, we thought we should be unnecessarily taxing your Lordship's time. Therefore we determined to ask you to attend on this occasion, not a working, but a gala-day, because we thought that on this occasion we could offer somewhat of novelty, and afford you an opportunity of getting a glance at that which is below the surface, the deep interest which the Natives take in the cause of Education, the working of this Institution, and the influence which it exercises on the subject at large. It is a novelty to find an Institution which has never received any contribution from the European. This is purely a Native establisment, founded and supported by Native benevolence; conducted and administered by Native Agency; and I would appeal to my learned friend the Advocate General, portion of whose official duties compels him to scrutinize the annual accounts of these Charities, to bear testimony to the fidelity, the zeal, and the ability, with which the Native Gentlemen who have taken this Trust upon them have discharged it, not from any vain spirit of aggrandizement, but from a sincere desire to benefit their fellow countrymen.

True, I am the Patron of this Institution; but it is only fair to the Trustees to mention that neither my predecessor nor myself have taken any active part in the management of the Institution; we felt that it should be entirely left to Native management without any interference of ours; our duties have been of a negative rather than a positive character; we have stood aside, only freely accessible to the Trustees whenever any occasion of difficulty or doubt might render it desirable for them to take the advice of a European.

The report just read relieves me from the necessity of tracing the rise, progress, or objects of the Institution. If its results be asked for, I bid you look around. Not only are we educating upwards of 500 boys who are receiving the rudiments of very excellent instruction, but we have educated 2,500;

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we feed the Government School with a high class of pupils ; we support the most deserving there during their career; no fewer than 140 boys have been so supported, as free or endowed Scholars of PATCHEAPPAH'S: one of our last boys was at once admitted to the collegiate department of the High School, testifying to the standard of our instruction; but beyond this, there is the fact which we have just witnessed, of the weaker and poorer educational establishments of the Presidency flocking to this Institution for advice and pecuniary assistance. In point of fact, long before the Governors of the High School had considered that principle, we have practically put in force the grant in aid system, freely bestowing, according to the extent of our means, assistance to those less able to stand alone than ourselves: and that upon certain fixed and determined principles, which are these ; first, that the School should be visited by a deputation of the Trustees; secondly, that it should be central; thirdly, that instruction should be conveyed through useful languages; and lastly, that the School should be prosperous. This last condition perhaps may require explanation; since it might be argued that the Schools in a less prosperous condition were those which stood most in need of assistance; but our funds, applicable to such purposes, are very limited; and it was essential to see that nothing is wasted, by bestowing it on a School which might fall to the ground immediately after our gift. A certain degree of prosperity therefore has been made an essential by the Trustees and I trust that when the Government shall enforce the principle of Grant in aid, we shall be found to have as good a claim as others to participate in its benefits.

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The first event of the past year to which I would especially call attention, in connection with this Institution, is the accession of two Native gentlemen to the body of Trustees. CONNIAH CHETTY has already joined us. I had hoped to have said the same of LUCHMENURSOO CHETTY; he has expressed

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his willingness so to do: and in the course of a few days it is the intention of the Trustees to invite him to become one of them. This is an important fact. There has been, if not a positive schism, at any rate great difference of opinion in Native Society, originating in their views of this very Institution. It has been argued that the devotion of so large a portion of the Testator's funds to the purposes of Education is a departure from his intention: but when I remember that the scheme has been established under the sanction of a Decree of the Supreme Court: that Government has approved of it; that one portion, of the Charity, that which affects the Mofussil, is carried on under rules framed by the Revenue Board; and that the Advocate General exercises a control over the whole; I cannot but think that, in the opinion of those best able to form a judgment, there has been no departure from the intentions of the Testator, but that on the contrary they have been carried out as far as circumstances would admit. Again, it has been said that the application of so large a portion of the Educational funds as was required for this structure, to its erection, was a lavish, if not a foolish expenditure. I for one have from the first been of a different opinion. I conceive that it was the wisest measure to erect this noble Hall. Its utility is unquestionable; not only for the immediate purposes of the Institution; for such ceremonies as those of to-day; for examinations and other occasions which must arise throughout the year; but through the liberality of the Trustees, it has been made extensively available for the delivery of Lectures and the like, for the benefit of other Educational and Literary Institutions: even the European population, in the absence of a Town Hall, has, on more than one occasion of public importance, had reason to be thankful for the use of this Hall. But surely this is the lowest point of view. It has given a ‘local habitation' to the Charity: It cements and binds together all Native co-operation in the cause of Education: it is a

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